Sexual inequalities persist in the professions. Among medical researchers, women devote 8 hours more per week than their husbands to household chores.
Gender disparities persist, including in highly educated professions. A study from the University of Michigan (United States) shows that women spend more time on family and domestic tasks than their male colleagues. The results, published on March 4 in Annals of Internal Medicine, suggest that certain behaviors resist egalitarian discourse.
Women sacrifice themselves more
More than 1,000 medical graduates who received a career development grant from the National Institute of Health took part in a survey. The questionnaires evaluated the time devoted to work and that reserved for family responsibilities.
Even among these highly motivated researchers, women sacrifice more of their research time for the benefit of the family. “One would expect that among this highly educated population […], there is a relatively fair distribution of domestic work. But we found that there is still a difference between the expectations at home for men and women, ”says Dr. Reshma Jagsi, author of the study.
In fact, men were 4 times more often married to a woman who was unemployed or employed part-time. On the other hand, for the vast majority of women, the husband was employed full time. Married teacher-researchers with children worked 7 hours more each week and spent 12 hours less at home than their female colleagues. The persistence of a family model in which the man is the financial pillar of the household partly explains these differences.
A threat to the career
Even taking into account the position of the spouse, the gap remains: married women doctors spend 8 and a half hours more per week on parenting and domestic tasks. “It might reflect unconscious expectations that have resisted change. For example, school forms often ask for the mother’s name first, suggesting that the woman is often the first contact, ”says Dr Jagsi. Concretely, according to the authors of the study, these disparities undermine the chances of success of women doctors and researchers. “Medicine must be a profession in which both women and men can be successful, and an environment where women can be a role model,” says Dr Jagsi.
To resolve domestic and family constraints, his team offers several solutions. Subsidies are at the heart of the system, in order to delegate as much time as possible to domestic tasks.
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